VIDEO: Accept Credit Cards With Your Cell Phone

[juncwil]

Lame, this news is old. This technology has already been developed and in use in other countries such as Japan and Finland for 2-3 years. The states even had a trial in Boston already, these guys are behind innovation...

 

[michaelahess]

Clintonio, many cards in the us have chip/pin, like my amex for example. Also, if the dongle encrypts the data immediately and then transmits it, no wireless or iPhone based man in the middle attack could occur, very secure.

 

[Guest]

Such a stupid idea. An average programmer can make a software who looks like the payment software. So you will buy a CD for the price of all your money on the credit card... Nice

 

[Mike00]

Yeah - No LOL they can't even go the route of saying that you can use a credit card with a chip on it, there is only a slide option and not a smart card option to insert the card. You know they wanted it to be small so it could be portable but it just made it worse. If the added the smart card chip reader and made the extra device with a cable that attached to the phone and even then trying to get people to buy it would be like damn that is to big or I still wont pass my credit card on your iPhone cuz I know there's an app for that. I think that some innovators make designs with money symbols in their eyes, trying to take their business in to flea markets and not actually looking at either security or skepticism of people. I love it how he says that it sends a map to show you where you did the transaction as fraud protection LOL like it can't be modified to show that you made it somewhere else LOL

Convenient ideas don't normally mean good ideas and definitely do not mean good investment; just wait for the first news article "teen steals 1000 credit card numbers using his iPhone while selling pirated DVDs and Games" LOL.

 

[Gulli]

"Just wait for the first news article "teen steals 1000 credit card numbers using his iPhone while selling pirated DVDs and Games" LOL."

LOL, I was thinking the same thing. Credit cards belong in the 1980's along with leather pants and perms.
Debit cards are much more secure and won't let you fall into the trap of spending money you don't have.

 

[michaelahess]

Mike00, there is plenty of room in that device to have a chip reader, it's not a contact reader, it's RFID. I don't know if it does have it, just saying it wouldn't be a problem to put one in to have the security of both.

 

[Clintonio]

[citation][nom]michaelahess[/nom]Clintonio, many cards in the us have chip/pin, like my amex for example. Also, if the dongle encrypts the data immediately and then transmits it, no wireless or iPhone based man in the middle attack could occur, very secure.[/citation]
That is definitely quite secure then (excluding the obvious keylogging problems that could happen)! I just guess I would wait until the whole country was securely on Chip&PIN. The UK government forced it in with legislation I believe, which in retrospect was one of the few good banking decisions they ever made!

 

[olafmetal]

Any reason you couldn't use a phones web browser to pay into someones paypal account? I'm just not sure why you would even need the scanner except for expediency. All you really need is the card number. The signature and imprint don't come into play unless there is a dispute right?

 

[Honis]

I guess the GSM encryption key hack came just in time!

 

[Gulli]

[citation][nom]olafmetal[/nom]Any reason you couldn't use a phones web browser to pay into someones paypal account? I'm just not sure why you would even need the scanner except for expediency. All you really need is the card number. The signature and imprint don't come into play unless there is a dispute right?[/citation]

Paypal takes about a week to transfer your money.
You'd be better off with internet banking like we have in the Netherlands. All you need is a card reader (you get one when you open a bank account, a PINcard and an internet connection). It's much faster and more secure than anything else.

 

[michaelahess]

I don't think you could keylog anything, the scanner would encrypt internally, no output to the iPhone until it's encrypted. You could keylog the amount and sig, but that's it. Guess you'd need a pin pad though huh?

 

[Guest]

if someone asked my to swipe my card on one of this shady looking things, id tell them to go to prison

 

[jonathan1683]

i think this thing is to be used for friends in a bar tab situation or restaurants I would never swipe my card in some random guys phone. Even though if he was stealing them I am sure he would quickly be caught banks monitor stolen credit cards by were they were swiped and if its common for stolen cards to come from one person they will catch him.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]jerreece[/nom]No way am I swiping my credit card on someone's phone at a garage sale. I'm sure there's a way to capture card details on the iPhone for later use. You just need another app running in the background that records any data transmitted from the card swipe.No thanks.[/citation]

Exactly! If the dongle itself used a physical chip to encrypt the card number before it made it onto the iphone then MAYBE i would use it depending on how secure the chip was. Otherwise the security implications are apocalyptic.

 

[sailfish]

This is a great idea if they could insure 128 bit encryption, security from other apps and competitive transaction fees. My guess is that Square would act as the merchant account and get a percentage of each transaction but that's only a guess.

 

[princeofdreams]

To be able to accept credit card payments you need a merchant account, which is quite a lengthy process and not something done easily, hence so many small traders online using paypal as a payment method, your average guy doing a garage sale or sharing a drinks tab wont be able to do it.

As sailfish mentioned possible this company will act as the broker for a fee, normal CC charge 5% of the transaction to the retailer, add the commission to Square and then you are probably looking at fees of around 10% of the transaction.

Then there is also who has liability, if you take a payment from a stolen CC will Square ensure the payment to you? this added to the risk of having your card details cloned do make it a risky proposition in my opinion.

But hey people still fall for Phising attacks so some people will be dumb enough to try it

 

[Guest]

"Paypal takes about a week to transfer your money.
You'd be better off with internet banking like we have in the Netherlands. All you need is a card reader (you get one when you open a bank account, a PINcard and an internet connection). It's much faster and more secure than anything else."

Wrong, it's instant as long as you're verified.

 

[randerson]

I don't see why people think this is so risky. You probably would have a higher chance of getting your cc info stolen from a stupid waiter at a restaurant. Check your balance regularly and make sure to dispute any crazy charges to porn sites(unless they are your subscriptions).

 

[sublifer]

Neat... but a potential tool for credit card thieves. Using their app it would be easy to catch them but a well though out hack would give them, at the least, quick access to store credit card info without taking the cards from where they were found.

 

[phanaticwear]

i love the possibilities, but this thing scares me.
if they do this thing right, i could make soooo much more money than i do now. what worries me is the "available in a few months" thing. unless they've been testing this out for months already, we all should be afraid. the iphone took years of planning, testing & retesting before it hit the market. although it's not perfect, it was miles ahead of any other smartphone when they released it.

i hope the SQUARE isn't going to be a broken record like most recent technological innovations are when they first hit the market: great idea- huge pros, but cons so risky they could jeopordize your entire business.

let everyone else experience the growing pains at garage sales & flea markets where small amounts are at stake. then we'll see if "Square 2.0" gets the necessary improvements to be a reliable tool for small business owners like myself who could get alot of additional sales from a device like this. if it proves safe enough to be worthy of my customers' trust, within weeks i'll probably wonder how i ever lived without it.

even eBay isn't 100% safe and they've had years & billions to reinvest into rooting out the crap & scams on their site. if these guys do things the right way rather than looking to make a quick buck & then work backwards to fix the flaws, this thing could be HUGE!! maybe even as big as ATMs when they first came out.

let's hope they do this right. we'll all be better off if they do. if people trust it's safe & secure, everyone will want to use it.